Leyland school celebrates 60 years of dance

Mavis Berry was just 15-years-old when she started teaching people to dance - and she is still going after 60 years.

This week her dance school will celebrate the special anniversary with the hundreds of dancers that have passed through the doors coming together for a party.

Mavis, 75, now runs the school alongside her daughter Helen.

Named after the pair, the Mavis Berry and Helen Allen School of Dance is based at Leyland United Reformed Hall in Quinn Street, Leyland and offers a range of dance classes including ballet and modern theatre.

Mavis, was born and brought up in Leyland, before moving to Thornton-Cleveleys to marry, but she still travels back and forth to Leyland to teach.

She said: “I think it has been a very colourful life. It has never been boring.

“I started the dance school on a Saturday morning and from there it developed.

“My daughter came in when she was 19 and we have been a very good partnership, she is very artistic and creative.

“The other thing that is very good is that I have been able to teach at the same place for all this time, they have been good to me and I have been good to them.

“It is commitment and continuity I think, that is half the battle. I suppose there is quite a lot of luck in it.

On Saturday night around 130 people, including past students from as far as Canada, will come together for a celebration evening at The Wellington Park Hotel in Leyland.

Helen, 47, who lives in Fulwood, Preston said: “She is very dedicated, it has never bothered her travelling backwards and forwards.

“We are quite close and get on very well as friends. We work very well together.

“There are a lot of people who have kept in touch. That’s what is really nice about the work.”